Pay It Forward

Rating:
Summary: Sappy Rhymes With Cnappy
Review: I usually check out Helen Hunt's films. Her lips are thin, she knows how to act, and she reminds me a heck of a lot of my current spouse's youngest sister (who is quite a hottie). Anyhow, this is a pretty predictable sob story from the get go. The acting is good, although the kid (Haley Donnie Osmond) isn't too good and delivers his lines like he has about 315 too many gummy bears in his mouth. Spacey is good (as usual) and I think I mentioned my thang for Hella Hella Hunt. A summary:
This film is about a kid who responds to an odd teacher's (Spacey) ridiculous extra credit assignment to change the world. The Osmond kid comes up with this do good "pay it forward" idea where he helps a low life without expecting anything in return (although he spends most of the movie moping about how his idea isn't working). The concept is based on the old shampoo commercial where you tell two friends and they tell two friends and so on and so on--except for it's three people and they're not necessarily friends. I told you it's sappy. The sappiness rolls on until the unsurprising and idiotic conclusion. I really would've given this 4 stars in spite of the poor childacting if it weren't for the ending. Overall, worth seeing if you want sap and you like Helly Hunt or Spacey. I won't be watching again.

Rating:
Summary: A Movie With an Excellent Message Crashes and Burns.
Review: It's too bad that Mimi Leder didn't put as much of her directing talents into "Pay It Forward" as she did with her two previous films, "The Peacemaker" and "Deep Impact." Here you have a excellent cast, a great novel, but in the midts of it all she loses control of the film. They always say, "location, location, location, and Las Vegas was NOT the location for this film. I think it would have floated better in a rougher inner city setting like, Chicago, Los Angeles or New York, Why Las Vegas? How is that supposed to help the film? The other element of this film was the "obligatory sex scene" between Mr. Simonet and Arlene.

I have never understood why screen writers, directors, etc. feel the need to stick a sex sceen into a film where it really doesn't have anything to do with the plot. It certainly doesn't help "Pay it Forward" any. "Pay it Forward" with sex? Now that's a good lesson for the youth of today. Sometimes I think they are doing it to make the movies stretch longer than 90 minutes, because without sex, the movie could be to short a flick for most paying people.

"Pay It Forward" is really three stories lumped into one mess that gets terribly confusing to the viewer at about the time when Trevor (Osmant) bring a homeless man into his house. That's where the story takes it's first unrealistic turn. In reality. would an 11 year-old-kid bring a total adult stranger into his home while mom (Hunt) is at work? I would certainly hope not. I also don't know of very many 11-year-olds who are in the 7th grade.

Another major problem for the movie was all the subplots from the very beginning when the reporter's car is totalled to the guy in prison who is telling the reporter that "Pay it Foward" was his idea, to the man who gave the keys to his Jag to the reporter in the opening scene. Where was all that stuff supposed to take us? I never did figure out what the "Four Month's Earlier," meant. (When Trevor is starting school, he walks through a metal detector. That is where the title appears.) It was never really explained in the film.

Mr. Simonet, (Spacey) did not strike me as being very convincing either. The story line or more like lines, revolve around too much collateral "junk" that I feel was not relivent to the story. Mr. Simonet's (Spacey) was one such person who's charator sort of wondered off track and lost control when Trevor (Osmant) tried to bring his teacher and his mother together. I think Mr. Simonet's part should have been more dignified in the script writing. Spacey is a wonderful actor who really should have been given a better roll. The film got loaded down with to many problems almost from the beginning. Mr. Simonet didn't really need to be a burn victom for the plot to have worked.

Arlene (Hunt) is an alcoholic mom who is almost never home with her child because she is working two jobs and goes out drinking with her friends. Somehow though, after giving Trevor a good smack on the face during an argument, she suddenly realizes that she has gone to far? One slap across the face usually doesn't make a kid run away. Maybe, if she had been more abusive it could have made better sense as to why Trevor ran away.

I think that when you have an actor as young as Haley (who was 11 when they were shooting the film), and is as bright as the sun, you shouldn't waste his wonderful tallent on the sort of deranged effects and subplots going on in the back ground. I truley believe though, that Haley could have benefited more from an idea that did't seem like selling Amway products. Maybe if "Pay it Forword" had been more unpredictable, it would have brought the best in Haley's acting abilities. He proved that to us in "Sixth Sense" at the age of 10. Another blunder is when Haley's charactor is stabbed while trying to help his friend who is being attacked by three bigger kids. I didn't think that Trevor had to pay the ulimate price though. Wounded would have been a better way for the out come of the film.

With the demise of Trevor at the end, comes the demise of the films greatest message. I think the "Pay it Forward" idea was good, but not in such a clumsy way that led the veiwer to so many dead ends. The movie failed to really catch me emotionally either. I am a very emotional person, so if I make through a film without shedding any tears, it didn't have much of an effect on me when I left the theater. It also failed to say much of anything that you could really take with you. The attribute of great film making, is the ability to make it so that the audience leaves with something they did not have when they came in. Maybe some creativity could have spared the message of the movie. That could have been it's saving grace, if nothing else.

Rating:
Summary: An allegory for Christ's teaching?
Review: It is surprising to me that no other review (that I read) has made the connection between the message this movie portrays so well and what Christ teaches us to do. Of course the ending involves death, what did anyone expect? This isn't "Polyanna's" world. THis movie portrayed people who have been hurt, scarred, unloved and existing day by day in silent desperation. This movie was at times numbingly real for me.

One review didn't like the "promiscuity" or the "profanity".

Another thought the movie too fake or not real enough.
I suspect that some of the reviewers have not "been there or done that" and may not have read scripture either. I have lived this kind of life as a child. These are the kind of people Christ went to in his ministry. They weren't saints, and, allow me to generalize, neither are we.

What scripture tells me is that God "paid it forward" by giving the world His only Son, the Son teaching that only through love can we reach the everlasting, and then God allowing His Son to die on a cross for all of us. It is up to us to continue to "pay it forward", to give thanks for life, to give thanks for each other's gifts, and to give people we meet a "hand up",and to forgive others as we forgive ourselves.

This movie got in my face and asked "What are you going to do?"

Rating:
Summary: a must see - over and over and over
Review: This movie ranks with "It's a Wonderful Life", in that it should be seen by everyone, many many times. In previous reviews, most bemoan the ending, but this movie could end in no other way. Who, in the history of mankind, has not paid the ultimate price when instituting an idea guaranteed to improve mankind. Humans have also proven over and over that they can take a wonderful idea and corrupt it, either through greed or lust for power and fame. This simple movie takes a simple idea and shows us all that we are indeed able to make the world a better place.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, Beautiful Message
Review: The "Pay it Forward" message in this film is what makes it beautiful.

The cast in this movie fit perfectly into their roles. Helen Hunt did a good job of portraying the yucky, drunk, fake-blonde mother. Kevin Spacey did an excellent job as Mr. Simonet. Haley Joel Osment did an outstanding, touching job as Trevor. Yes, as many have said, he does play his roles seriously. However, that is what this movie calls for, and he's great at it.

I must say that I enjoyed this movie until the last 3 minutes of it, during which I was in tears...the message of the film is that the world could be a wonderful place if everybody would "Pay it Forward", but that's not reality, not everybody is willing to "Pay it Forward". But, Trevor stated that by "Paying it Forward" you can "change a person", so they will someday "Pay it Forward".

Do the world a favor, don't be afraid, Pay it Forward, it could work.

Rating:
Summary: DEAR GOD IT HURTS!
Review: One star is about two stars more than this utter piece of trash deserves. I can't even waste too much time trashing it, as it is too bad. Stay away, stay away!

Rating:
Summary: Great message, messy film
Review: I like the "pay it forward" idea in this movie. I believe it could have been the premise for a great movie.
Helen Hunt stars as a drunken mother. Her bleached hair looks fake (like a cheap fright wig) and her make up is way too extreme. She looks like she decided to dress up like a hooker for Halloween. She gets upset and starts tearing her house apart looking for hidden bottles of liquor. Don't get me wrong I like Helen, but her makeup and trampy clothing just looked "staged", didn't look natural on her.
Then there was Kevin Spacey, who plays a school teacher who is disfigured from a fire. When it comes time to get intimate with Helen Hunt, he freaks out because he doesn't want her to see the scars on his chest. A little over acted in my opinion.
And then there is Haley Joel Osment as the child of the drunken Helen Hunt, still acting and speaking in that quiet, breathy, dramatic way that took him to fame in The 6th Sense. I wish a director would give this kid aim.
The story just never comes together, I knew the message of the film, and I liked the message, but it just never materializes.
The best acting is by James Caviezel as a junkie (in a small role), Angie Dickinson (as the homeless alcoholic mother to Helen Hunt), and Jay Mohr as the reporter trying to track down "pay it forward" to its founder.
The premise is , you do a random good deed for someone, and in turn they help out 3 people , so on, so on...
Great idea. But the movie tries too hard to make you cry. The ending is ridiculous, and obviously is trying to make the audience weep. It was just too tedious for me.

Rating:
Summary: The Good Part Is In The Commercial
Review: A movie like this is based solely on the premise, not the story. The story just fleshes it out. Without giving anything away I can say that the acting performances here are the standard ones you'd get in any of these actors' movies. Kevin Spacey is very much like Keyser Söze, Helen Hunt was just like in As Good As It Gets, Haley Joel Osment might as well have been seeing dead people, etc. The only real acting surprise here was Jay Mohr, who usually plays a tool actually pulled off a great performance. My advice is to save your money, rent this movie or check it out at the library since the whole premise is given away in the movie and the acting isn't worth the money.

Rating:
Summary: I wish this was real.
Review: Upon seeing this movie, my belief on greatness of humanity has come back, which was gone for long. If I could make just only one wish, this would be it. The movie has perfect casting, directing and production. It's very simple actually but it just fits in an empty room of human kindness.

Rating:
Summary: The producers filmed a wonderful movie, now pay it forward
Review: This isn't the most emotional movie throughout, but the cast and storyline make up for it. The writers offer many great twists and turns; one minute, lives are wonderful, the next, lives break. The acting is wonderful. Had the casters chosen anyone other than Haley Joel Osment to play Trevor, "Pay It Forward" would have been spoiled. He proves that he's one of the few child actors with talent. The make-up team brilliantly desplict Helen Hunt's character as a struggling stressed-out mother, as does Hunt obviously. They make Mr. Simonet's, burns look as if they belonged to Kevin Spacey's. One may think at first glance of this movie that it's low budgetted. There's much more put in this than it appears. That's a good thing. One will end this movie with a new sense of hope and fulfillment. There's no disappointing scene.

And....if you've read this, you must pay it forward.